


All shook up (5 times +1 trope)

by supermassive



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: 5 times +1 trope, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Oneshot, Reddie, They’re like 14/15 ish I guess, Who I would sacrifice my life for, also no pennywise cuz fuck that shit, do they kiss? maybe, eddie is clueless honestly, loser/lover, minimal angst, my beautiful innocent boys, my faves fall in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 19:46:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12394938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supermassive/pseuds/supermassive
Summary: After a week of sporting a cast with LOSER printed on it, Eddie wakes up at a sleepover to see the S replaced with a big red V: LOVER. Eddie attempts to find out who was thinking of love.Aka the five times Eddie was wrong and the one time he was right.





	All shook up (5 times +1 trope)

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first story I've ever published, but I've read so many Reddie oneshots on here and I wanted to contribute to this inspiring fan base. 
> 
> I've based this I guess off the 2017 movie characters since I haven't finished the book yet, and the movie is such a beautiful thing. 
> 
> Cool thanks hope you enjoy. 
> 
> (Also sorry about the jumps between present and past tense sometimes, it's not always a change in timeline I just don't know how to write)
> 
>  
> 
> All Shook up was a really popular song by Elvis in 1957 and it's super bouncy and cute, so I thought it might be a good accompaniment for this little story thing. Cool.
> 
> WARNINGS: Swearing  
> “Faggot” is used ONCE by a bully.

1\. Awakening

Sleepovers were the losers' "thing." Almost every weekend, they would all accumulate at someone's house then stay a little too late, and decide to just sleep over because, hell, why not? It was always great fun and it just felt... warm, to Eddie. Like a great big hug from a fire. Although, thinking about it, a hug from a fire doesn't seem too pleasant. So Eddie thought, perhaps, it was like a great big hug from Richie. Yes, that seemed about right. Perfect and lovely in every single way.

Just like Richie, in Eddie's eyes.

Eddie woke up in the middle of the night, groggy and confused, only remembering that they all fell asleep at Stan's. He could see torchlight coming from under the blanket of the person next to him. Was that Ben? Mike, maybe? Lifting his arm to rub his eyes, Eddie remembered that his right arm was bound in a cast.

The previous week, Eddie had broken his arm after the group went adventuring in that abandoned house in Neibolt street.

"Guys! Are you just going to blatantly ignore that no entry sign?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Beverly said, laughing.

"It's probably dangerous. There'll be- there'll be- bugs and shit. Leaking pipes. Probably asbestos or something!"

"Well if it wasn't dangerous, Eds-" Richie began.

"Don't call me that-"

"It wouldn't be fun, now, would it?"

Richie soon ate those words when Eddie fell through the creaky, rotting floor and on to a table on the story below.

Jesus Christ, it fucking hurt. More than anything Eddie had ever experienced. More than the time he got the huge injection at the doctor's office, and certainly more than the time Henry punched him in the hallway- and Richie threw a fit.

"Eddie!" Richie shouted, seeing Eddie splatted on the floor, arm broken- clearly- and his best friend sobbing like he was about to die. "Fuck, Eddie!" Richie ran to his side, closely followed by the rest of the losers. Eddie was screaming.

"I'm going to snap your arm back in to place, okay?"

"Don't touch me! Do not fucking touch me! I swear to God-" and then Richie snapped his arm right back in to line. And Eddie almost blacked out.

Laying in the darkness of Stan's bedroom, Eddie smiled. The whole situation seemed quite funny now that it wasn't hurting anymore. Although what did hurt was that stupid girl printing LOSER across his entire cast in black pen. Eddie looked down at him arm, but was shocked to see something new had appeared while he had been sleeping. The S of the word LOSER was covered in a large red V, so now his cast read LOVER. Curious, that someone did that while he was asleep. And it must have been one of his friends, they were all here, after all.

Eddie looked around the room, they were all asleep, except for the person next to him. He poked at the figure, concealed under a blanket glowing from torchlight. The figure unveiled themself to be Bill, reading with a torch under his blanket.

"Bill," Eddie whispered. "Did you do this?" He asked, showing Bill his newly decorated cast. Bill looked and smiled, albeit in a confused way.

"N-no. N-not me, Eddie. It's p-pretty cool, though. I wonder if the person's trying t-to tell you something," Bill replied, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

"Shut up," Eddie giggled, and the boys laughed as quietly as possible, as to not wake the other sleeping friends.

 

 

2\. Cafeteria

The next Monday, after boring lessons in which somehow every loser found themselves without another one, the group all sat down together to eat lunch. They had their table- it was a special art, choosing where to sit. The places closest to the doors were always taken up by the rushers- the ones that always had clubs or somewhere to be. The popular kids- also known as the dickheads- had claimed the corners of the cafeteria- I guess they saw those as the best spots, probably where they wouldn't get caught snorting coke or whatever those assholes got up to these days. The middle of the room was far too much hassle- you'd always catch yourself in the cross-heir of some sort of fight, be that getting bombarded with poorly aimed paper balls and food, or stuck in the middle of a shouting match. So the gang found themselves sitting left hand side, halfway between the doors and the top left corner.

Eddie has been thinking about his cast. He's thought up all these situations where he found out who it was- always Richie, by the way- who would then and there confess his undying love for Eddie, and everything was happily ever after. But as he waited in line for food, Eddie didn't ask Richie if he was the red-penned culprit, and Richie didn't mention it either. Eddie suddenly felt very embarrassed about his fantasies. As if Richie would ever like him like that.

Sitting down to join the rest of the group, Eddie interrogated his next suspect, Ben. He was a poet and a romantic- maybe he thought it would be cute. Eddie could imagine Ben saying some cheesy shit like "your arm is broken, but the love of our friendship will never break," or something sickening like that. He mentally gagged.

"Ben, was this you?" Eddie asked, showing Ben the cast. The rest of the losers lean across the table and each other to get a look.

"Why do you think it was me?" He asks, taking a sip of his drink.

"Well, I don't know, you're poetic like that," Eddie says, and his friends chuckle.

"Poetic, hey?" Richie comments, sounding thoughtful, but it fades into the background.

"But, no, it wasn't me. It's cute, though." He says, smiling in a way that would be picked up as suspect by Eddie, if he wasn't so busy being confused. Well, then who could it be? Seems out of character for any of them, really, but if it was anyone, it would have been Ben. January embers, and all that. Eddie stares down at his cast.

"Who was it, then?" Eddie asks, looking around at all of his friends.

"That's for you to find out, Eds. Always wanted to be a detective, anyway." Richie jokes.

"No, I haven't." He laughs. "And for the last time, don't call me that!" Beverly is looking down, not meeting Eddie's eyes. Oh no- was it Beverly?

 

 

3\. Maths

Eddie hates maths more than any other god forsaken class in this god forsaken school. The teacher may as well have been speaking German- he didn't understand a word of what came out of his mouth. As he babbled on about epileptic functions (epileptic? Exhibition? Exponential? Who knows) Eddie's mind began to wonder back to LOVER. Who? What was his secret Lover? And why are they still a secret? Everyone was there at lunch- why didn't someone just own up? And why was it bothering him so much?

Eddie mentally crossed out names who he knew didn't do it. Not Bill. Not Ben. And not Richie. He just knew it wasn't Richie.

Bev leaned over to him.

"Do you know what this means?" She asked, pointing at her maths book, snapping Eddie back in to the real world. She seemed just as clueless about the maths as he did.

"No idea, unfortunately. But it's a load of bullshit if you ask me." He replied. Beverly concealed a laugh as the teacher strolled past her desk.

"I'd rather lick the bathroom floor than be here," she commented. Gross, Eddie thought. Nothing in this whole world could convince him to get his tongue- or any part of him- near the hurricane of germs that was this school's bathroom. Maybe the girls' was cleaner.

"Bev, was this you?" Eddie asks, motioning at his arm.

"No," she smiles. "Sorry, man. You're gonna have to do more digging."

"Why is it such a big deal?" Eddie asks, frustrated.

"Oh, it's not. You're making it a big deal, honey." She grins and Eddie rolls his eyes- but in a loving way.

"Do you know who it was?" Eddie asks.

"That's not for me to tell ya, Eddie my dear boy." She says in an awful British accent- why do her and Richie make stupid voices all the time? They're not even a little bit good. He laughs every time, though, somehow.

Well, great. Because now he's thinking about Richie again, which was something he was so desperately trying to forget. It'll just piss him off more. He was so adamant that Richie wasn't the LOVER- he felt like he just knew- and frankly, it didn't even matter who it was now. Because they're not Richie, are they?

 

 

4\. Mike to the rescue

Its a few days after Eddie had asked Beverly about his cast, and he'd been doing lots of thinking. Bill was sleeping next to him, and seemed the most likely person, but he knew that it wasn't Bill. He'd thought long and hard, but really could not remember who was sleeping on his other side. Usually, it would have been Richie, but him and Stan were on the opposite side of the room that night. He also knew that it wasn't Ben or Bev, so it MUST have been Mike. Eddie was happy with his detective skills and planned to confront Mike about it the very next time he saw him.

Well, it was all going to plan that warm Thursday at school, until Eddie ran into Henry and the rest of his dickhead gang. Eddie saw them approaching from the corner of his eye as he rummaged through his locker, and tried to ignore them, but that proved difficult when Henry grabbed his arm (yes, the broken one) and yanked him in his direction.

"Lover?" he smirked, and his stupid mates laughed. "Who's the lover, Eds?" Henry mocked. He hated the fact that he used the nickname Eds to make fun of him- only Richie was allowed to call him that, even though he pretended to hate it.

"I- I don't know," Eddie replied, trying to pull his arm back into his own possession, only causing Henry to grip the cast tighter, making Eddie worry that he might break it.

"Ay, boys, he doesn't know!" Henry shouts, and laughter erupts from his group, which had grown two members larger in the last few seconds.

"Please, can you let go of-"

"What was that, Eds? Please?" Eddie just blinked, straining his arm. "Say it again."

Humiliating, at best. Down right life-ending at worst, for his reputation at least. The bullies already knew that he was an easy target, and this would only give them something else to make fun of.

"You know what, scrap that," Henry pondered. "Tell me who did this to your cast, and maybe we can set up a little date, huh? How about that, Kaspbrak, a nice little date- you might even get your first kiss," Henry spat, so close to Eddie's face that he could smell his putrid breath.

"I told you," Eddie began, "I don't know who-"

"Liar!" Henry yelled, making all the heads turn in the corridor. "I bet it was that gay friend of yours, Tozier. That little fucking faggot was due a beating anyway-"

"It was me!" someone shouts. It's Mike. "I thought it would look cool, now leave him alone."

Just then, a teacher walks into the hall, and Henry lets go of Eddie's arm and slams him into his locker before leaving, his friends laughing and following him away like the sheep that they are. Mike was saved there; if a teacher hadn't had come he would have got his ass beat, for sure. Mike runs up to Eddie to help him.

"You okay?" he asks, concerned for his friend.

"Yeah, thanks for saving me," Eddie says, almost breathless. "Was it really you?" he asks, suddenly remembering what Mike had said. He was hopeful. He had worked out that it might have been Mike from deduction, and now that Mike had just said it, he can't have been wrong!

"Nah, dude. Just- he said that he would fuck up Richie if it was him, so I just said that it was me. He gets enough trouble from them as it is. Obviously I just wanted them to leave you alone, too."

Eddie thanked Mike but was also secretly annoyed that it wasn't actually him who wrote LOVER. That only leaves one person to ask, and that's Stan. Well, he hadn't asked Richie, but he knew it couldn't be him.

Eddie's feelings for Richie had been there for a long time, but Eddie certainly didn't notice them at first. But then one day, as the two boys lagged behind at the back of the loser's rowdy walk to their favourite milkshake place, it hit Eddie like God himself had stricken it upon him.

It wasn't a typical summers day, birds singing and all that bullshit. No pretty autumn leaves or biting chill in the winter breeze, rendering noses red and lips pale. It was just an ordinary day, the sky grey-blue and bright, clouds threatening to consume the earth. He and Richie were walking a few paces behind the rest of the group.

"Are you sure you're okay, Eds?" Richie asked in a hushed tone. Eddie had just had an argument with his mum and had a bruise on his arm which he was trying to cover up, but Richie suspected that his mum had hit him again. The argument was about his pills. Eddie had refused to take them anymore, and his mum wasn't happy about it.

"Yeah," Eddie replied, trying to smile.

"You know you can tell me the truth, right, Eds? You don't have to act tough for me. I'd love you either way."

Eddie just hugged him. They stopped walking and just hugged, and as Richie played with the hem of his best friend's shirt in their embrace, warmth spreading throughout him, Eddie realised that he was in love.

 

 

5\. Liars

That Friday, the losers found themselves at Ben's house. This time the sleepover was planned, they wanted to finish a group project together for art class, which they begrudgingly got out of the way, a thousand distractions tempting them away from their work. They were just doing the finishing touches now.

It was an abstract painting on a big piece of paper, responding to the project title "emotion." Each loser chose a feeling and tried to represent it on their section of the paper, and they would merge together to make one big emotional piece. Or something like that.

Beverly chose happiness. She's using a lot of yellow and green with soft, smooth brush strokes, and she's put some baby pink flowers in there. Bill is doing sadness, and his section is quite blue and grey and black. Stan chose Anger, and his brush strokes are all quick and sharp and genuinely look angry. Mike is doing fear and Ben is doing surprise, which is quite difficult because you can be happily surprised or negatively surprised, but Ben's doing a pretty good job.

Eddie is doing confusion, because, well, that's how he feels. He doesn't know where his life is going at the moment, and, more pressingly, he doesn't know who wrote that fucking V on his cast. Yes, he still has to ask Stan, who it can only be. But it still begs the question, why didn't he just tell him earlier? And why were all his friends being so weird about it?

Richie was using all pinks and reds. He was using soft brush strokes; very soft, and gentle. Which was completely the opposite of his outwards personality. The only person who had seen his gentle side was Eddie, and maybe that's why he loves him. Richie is all caught up in a daydream, swirling pinks and reds and yellows, thinking about only one thing: Eddie. He thought that it would be OBVIOUS who painted the red V on his cast. He was going to make it in to some sort of confession or something, but that plan seemed stupid now, especially since Eddie seemed to hate the damn thing so much. Eddie looked cute there, carefully choosing his colours and placing them perfectly on the page. He had some yellow and green paint smeared on his cheek and splattered on his delicate hands, and it was endearing. Richie mentally rolled his eyes at himself- if anyone could hear his thoughts now it would be so embarrassing and definitely not the way he planned to confess his crush on Eddie. Hell, it wasn't even a crush at this point, was it? Richie thinks that he's in love. He knows.

They clean up when they're done painting, scrubbing floors and themselves to get all the paint off. Beverly almost trips and falls on to the painting, but Mike pulls her to safety, creating quite a dramatic few seconds. Although, nothing would sum up the losers' relationship with the world better than someone falling right into wet paint that they had just spent an hour and a half putting ("crafting") on to a page.

When they're all clean and quite tired, they lounge comfortably around Ben's garage, which has sofas and a small TV where they just have a music channel playing in the background as they relax.

"You know you still have paint on your face, right, Richie?" Stan laughs.

"And what if I want it here, Stanley? I think I look beautiful!" Richie jokes.

"You look something, and it ain't beautiful," Stan retorts, causing his friends to chuckle. "What emotion did you do, anyway?"

"Love," Richie smirks and looks at Eddie, "I was thinking about Eddie's mum."

Eddie rolls his eyes and shows Richie his middle finger before speaking up.

"Talking of love," he says, "this was you, Stan, wasn't it?" He asks, smiling, holding up his cast.

"Nope," Stan replies, grinning.

"Well, yes, actually. Since you're the only person left," Eddie replies.

"Um, no," Stan says, laughing. "I think you've missed something."

"I haven't missed anything, Stan." Eddie's face looks confused- and angry, almost.

"Who was it?" Eddie asks, sounding a little too demanding for the previous lighthearted mood.

Beverly answers- "have you asked everyone?"

"Yes! I have!" Eddie shouts. "And you all lied to me!" As he shouts this, his eyes fill with tears and his voice goes all raspy and broken. "And you all know who it is yet you won't tell me! Fuck that! If you don't want to tell me, then, fine, fucking don't!"

Richie speaks, "Eddie, you haven't-"

"No! I don't want to hear it!" He cries, actual sobs escaping his outburst of rage. Eddie gets up and heads for the door and opens it.

"Don't follow me!" He shouts before slamming it shut and leaving, storming out into the pouring night-time rain.

 

 

+1. Rain

The rain hammers down relentlessly as Eddie spitefully searches out the nearest means of shelter. He just remembered that he’s not supposed to get his cast wet and he doesn't have a coat, so he shoves it under his shirt as he walks.

Just a few houses up from Ben's, he shelters under a really big tree whose leaves are dense enough to completely block the rain, and takes a seat under it, leaning against the trunk. It's cold- really cold- and Eddie is starting to regret his outburst if only for the fact that he's now shivering in the wind. And it's an icy one, at that.

What if it really was Richie this whole time? Eddie hates to let his mind go there, because it would only get his hopes up, only for them to be torn back down. Richie was his best friend.

_Richie could never love me._

"Eddie! Eds!" He hears among the the gust, the sound carried left and right and round in circles, echoing slightly off the flat-faced houses lining the street. Richie is calling for him.

He watches as Richie frantically looks around, cowering under an umbrella. Eventually Eddie is spotted, and Richie runs towards him, trying not to slip in the rain.

"Oh, Eddie, you're shivering," Richie coos, giving him a jacket that he was carrying. Eddie immediately puts it on and zips it all the way up. Eddie thanks Richie quietly, and Richie sits down by his side.

For a while they just sit in silence.

"It was you, wasn't it?" Eddie murmurs, staring at his shoes.

Richie hesitates. "Yeah. Sorry."

"Why sorry?" Eddie asks, more calmly than he expects of himself. He wanted it to be Richie all this time, but he's not bouncing off the walls now that he knows. It feels different. Not in a bad way. Just different.

"Because you hate it."

"I don't hate it at all. I really love it. And I really wanted it to be you."

"Then why didn't you ask me?" Richie sounds a little hurt.

"Because I thought that never in a million years you would do that. And, anyway, it's not like you mean it."

"Mean what?"

"You don't love me, Richie, and I really wish that you did, okay? I didn't want to get my hopes up."

"Who said I don't love you?"

Eddie doesn't reply.

There's some more silence, then Richie stands up and extends his hand down to Eddie, who he pulls to his feet. They start walking back and Richie pulls Eddie under the umbrella with him.

"Wouldn't want your cast to get wet," he says fondly.

They walk back to the house in comfortable silence, but Eddie can't help but feel like he's missing an opportunity. So he takes it.

"Richie?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I kiss you?"

Richie doesn't speak, only nods, and pulls Eddie closer with his chilly hands. Wind cascades all around them as they kiss in the rain and Eddie feels an amazing calm settle over him and that feeling can only be love.

"I really like you, Richie. More than best friends."

"Me, too, Eds."

And they kiss again.

 

***

 

When they walk back in to the house, Eddie's hair dripping wet, Richie has a hold of his hand. The losers all smile.

"You know we all watched Richie do it, right?" You woke up like, a minute after, and we all had to pretend to be asleep," Beverly told Eddie, much to his (happy) surprise. Eddie looked up at Richie, who nodded to confirm.

"To be honest, Eds, we thought you'd work it out sooner," Richie giggled.

"Yeah, seems like everyone knew about Richie's feelings for you except for you. In my opinion, it was blindingly obvious," remarked Stan, who was smiling at the two.

"Leave h-him alone! I-it's cute!" Bill protested, grinning at the boys.

So yeah, sleepovers were the losers' "thing," and they felt like a big warm hug to Eddie, but now he liked them even more because he got to sleep in Richie's arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, people who have got this far! And people who even thought it was a good enough story idea to click on :) I hope you enjoyed it xx
> 
> In conclusion: Eddie and Richie are the reason I smile x


End file.
